“Presenting himself with a perfect performance, Garrett Keast led the Symphoniker Hamburg in a relentlessly good performance! The orchestra’s playing was sparkling and fresh, with an extremely beautiful sound. Tchaikovsky's great composition was made to shine.”

Staatsoper Hamburg, January 2018 – Klassik Begeistert

Berlin-based conductor Garrett Keast was born in Houston and was mentored by Christoph Eschenbach at the Houston Symphony Orchestra. His studies continued at the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals and he was awarded the Bruno Walter Career Development Grant during his tenure as Associate Conductor of the New York City Opera. His European career was launched with performances of Faust at the Opéra National de Paris, Georg Friedrich Haas’s Bluthaus at Oper Bonn, and Die Zauberflöte at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Highlights of Garrett Keast’s 2016/2017 season included Le Sacre de Printemps with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Vienna, a Haydn-Widmann program with the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels, and Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg.

Garrett Keast has conducted performances at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Gasteig in Munich, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Theater an der Wien and the Bastille in Paris. He continues a close relationship with the Staatsoper Hamburg, where he has conducted over seventy-five performances with John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet including tour performances in Vienna, Tokyo and Baden-Baden.

The 2017/2018 season sees Garrett Keast return to the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Vienna for performances that are part of the Bernstein Centennial. In Basel he will direct the Sinfonieorchester Camerata Schweiz in programs featuring Haydn and Mozart, and he will make his debut in Copenhagen with the Royal Danish Opera. As part of the Rainy Days Festival in Luxembourg, he conducts the final Composer's Academy concert with the United Instruments of Lucilin. He also returns to the Staatsoper Hamburg for a Vienna Staatsballet production of Don Quixote and performances of The Nutcracker with John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet.

"… under the direction of Garrett Keast… the Symphony No. 102 of Haydn revealed the best of the orchestra by the stylish impetus, the depth of the strings, the fusion of timbres."

National Orchestra of Belgium, April 2017 – La Libre

“Garrett Keast returns with first-choice repertoire, Dvorak’s New World Symphony. It shows him at the height of his visually impressive style. The American builds his interpretation around the Largo which infuses the other three movements. He traverses it in a sweeping, dignified slowness, all in one breath…”

9th June, 2018The Royal Danish Ballet Gala
The Old StageA Gala featuring International stars
in celebration of August Bournonville
The Royal Danish Orchestra

"An almost perfect orchestra led by the young conductor Garrett Keast."

Opera National de Paris, Faust – Bleatmag

“Heavenly beautiful, the orchestra plays the ingenious dream music. Consistently, the orchestra plays under the American Garrett Keast, … wonderfully lively and energetic, with a good sense of drama. The Spanish dances are as beautiful as the wonderfully swinging waltzes.”

"Pure drama is conveyed by the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Garrett Keast"

“Smartly led by Garrett Keast, members of the Fort Worth Symphony match the singers’ expressive range and dramatic specificity; some of the quieter wind playing is exquisite. […] Keast deserves much credit for the amazing tautness of the vocal ensembles.”